After Effects vs. Nuke – AE Premium
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After Effects vs. Nuke – AE Premium

on Mar 16th 2010 with 44 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Requirements: After Effects, Nuke 6 Personal Learning Edition which you can get for free here.
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
Download Source Files

This tutorial compares the workflow of After Effects with Nuke and is intended for After Effects users who want to familiarize themselves with the interface and want to make their first steps in Nuke.

After a short introduction of myself I start a composition in both Nuke and After Effects and compare how each step in a everyday composition is carried out in the different applications. This is not a full beginner’s tutorial on Nuke but when needed I explain necessary keyboard shortcuts and concepts.

Also this time I mention and highlight keyboard shortcuts I use to speed up the work and especially mention differences in methods between Nuke and After Effects.

This is a Premium Tutorial. To view you must Join Premium.

Tutorial Sneak Peek

Once you’ve joined, log-in to the Premium Dashboard with your username and password to immediately access your Plus Content. Navigate to Ae Premium via ‘Premium Categories’ in the sidebar. You’ll be able to grab the tutorial videos, project files and assets in the members’ area.

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Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I am a Digital Compositor with a passion for Visual Effects. I experienced work in many projects, from being a roto-monkey to Head of VFX and I am always looking for new interesting ways to tackle problems and like sharing my knowledge. And I come from Austria, isn't that weird? You can even follow me if you're really bored.  

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  • Jeff Murchison

    I’m not seeing it in the plus content. And why is everything being called Premium now? It’s Plus! I love this site, but it’s always been a hassle to actually access Plus content.

  • Andrea

    Sorry but your face/hairs are funny to me :) lool

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      thanks. i guess … ^^

    • John

      I have to agree with you Andrea

      • brawk

        how come you’re wearing makeup?

  • tot pal

    crazy……
    but why not Fusion its more strong and stable ..

    • Domo-nick

      No way Nuke is on a whole different level.. You wonder why he chose Nuke over con-fusion? Because Nuke is better and and more stable.. And at least in my opinion easier to use and more powerful.

  • Nick

    Great idea! I wish there were more tuts like this. For example for Combustion. Now I saw something interesting enough to join. Maybe I will, maybe I will… By the way, the beginning reference killed me xD

  • http://visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

    Dude! This is AMAZING! You can always tell you put a lot of work into your tutorials… great job on this…. these are the things that make Plus memberships HIGHLY worth it.

    • http://visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

      oh yeah, and I love the dinosaur noises…

      • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
        Author

        *ROAAAAR* that’s the result of some intense SNES-game sample ripping (“Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic Park II: The Chaos Continues”)

  • Twocifer

    Good performance! You know, I like to see a bit of character and unique personality put into tutorials and podcasts. Not to mention that “extra” touch. This is why people like Andrew Kramer, Maltaannon, John Connolly (Film Riot), Eric Beck (Indy Mogul), even the Kelby Training guys et al, work so well; you can learn from these guys but also be entertained. You do it in your own style, while not copying any of said presenters. Kudos to you…

    Not to mention that I really wouldn’t mind diving into Nuke a bit! Thank you for your contribution… keep up the good work.

    • Kurtis Thomas

      Film Riot is done by Ryan Connoly, there’s no John on the show :)

      • Twocifer

        I know of and know too many Connoly’s. We Irish multiply in blidning numbers…can’t keep ‘em straight…

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      thanks — i will. if time permits :)

  • Edit

    Hello Phil!
    I´ve watched your tutorial—> and I must say it is GREAT STUFF!!!

    keep up the good work

    By the way–> how long did you need to create this Tutorial?

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      thank you. well this one was about two weeks from first draft to upload of the final video. i also thought about making a tutorial on making a tutorial on making a tutorial but it would take three hours ^^

  • Tushar

    Another article, but this one came long back.

    http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/nuke-an-introduction-for-after-effects-users

    Guess, people not having access to the Plus content can check this out

  • danger lion

    wow please please continue with more tuts like this, that was really great. I never understood node based composting till today
    thanks

  • Felix

    I LOVE that big bad watermark ;)

  • http://danielbroadway.blogspot.com Daniel Broadway

    Ha ha, I love the sneak peak video. Compairing AE to an old lover you don’t want to move on from was right on. I am learning Nuke right now, and it makes me miss AE.

  • Nick

    I just watched it and I have to say the tutorial is very well done. I’m a bit disappointed since you mentioned this 3D thingy, which we saw in preview, only slightly. However, overall it was a good insight on Nuke and now I really want it.

    One question: can Nuke import 3D models from 3D application like C4D or 3D Max or Maya? If yes, how does those function? Can I import already textured or even animated models? Can Nuke recognize lights and cameras from 3D apps? And, most importantly, does those model function inside of Nuke’s 3D world? Or is it like AE, where everything works in it’s own 3D world? I would really love if you’d answer.

    All the jokes were great, made this tut much better :) Especially the one about Kramer. All hail Kramer! xD So, great tut! And I would love to see more tuts of this kind.

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      Hi Nick!

      To answer your questions: yes, you can import .obj files from various applications and for projections you don’t even need to have proper UVs on them (but it helps). To texture your models you simply import your texture via a read-node and pipe it into the model’s image input. I don’t think that already animated objects work in Nuke (yet).

      As for cameras there’s a script by Frank Ruether, I guess, that lets you export a Maya camera to a channel-file which can be read by Nuke as three-dimensional camera movement and comes in handy for matching CG and comp tricks. I don’t know so much about lights but exporting them as cameras and parenting lights to them in Nuke would probably work.

      In Nuke you can have a number of scenes which can share objects and/or cameras which is really neat. Each scene-node pipes into a render-node whose result is the rendered image which can be treated like any two-dimensional image sequence in Nuke further on.

      Still using Nuke as 3d-application would be like using After Effects for editing a feature film. It would work, somehow, but it’s not really what it was designed for. Further, the scanline-renderer of Nuke is not as high quality as e.g. MentalRay (although keeps improving with the versions). In my work I use the 3d-space in Nuke mostly for projections in conjunction with 3d-tracked cameras.

      I hope this helps! And Thanks for watching my tut!

      • Nick

        Thanks for reply. You have answered quite much everything I wanted to know. I know you should not use Nuke as 3D app, but you do need to interrogate 3D app with some composting software in most cases. As you most probably know, you can achieve some pretty amazing results with C4D+AE. But still being able to import a whole 3D object would be even better! You can import 3D into AE via the Photoshop, but that way has lots of minuses, as you might know: can’t use AE lights, you have to texture in Photoshop and overall your result is much less impressive. With Nuke features, however, I think some rather interesting things can be made. Anyways, thanks for the info.

  • Alex

    Wow!
    Nuke looks pretty intense.
    Don’t know if I am ready to take on another program…

  • Victor

    Nice tut any way this guy look like this http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2002_the_time_machine_015.jpg lool

  • TRiGGER80

    Great idea!

    I like the concept of explaining Nuke to AE Users =)

    though, personally i find the title a bit misleading.

    To me, it has never been “AE *VERSUS* NUKE”.

    I think, both programs have their purpose and right to exist next to each other.
    Its just different tools in the box, and i love using both equally, for different things.

    And personally, i think, its not the worst idea to use them TOGETHER in one and the same pipeline.

    But yeah, i guess i am rambling a bit much here, after all, the title is just a semantic question i guess.

    However, great tut and a great idea to explain “nuke” to AE users.

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      thanks trigger! in fact i chose the title to spark some interest, “nuke and after effects” would sound as exciting as “alien and predator” ;)

      and i totally agree, nuke and after effects can co-exist in the same pipe-line. more than once i used AE in conjuction with nuke for flashy UIs or HUDs: i animated them in AE and comped them in nuke.

  • http://vfxhaiku.com Kert Gartner

    Hey all,

    I’ve got a similar tutorial (FOR FREE!) that’s called Node Based Compositing for After Effects Users.

    You can view it here:

    http://vfxhaiku.com/2009/12/node-based-compositing-for-after-effects-users/

    In many of my tutorials, I try and compare workflows between a node based application like Nuke and Fusion to After Effects. Showing the workflows in both applications shows how simple it is to translate the skill-set from one to the other.

    Hope you guys enjoy it!

    Thanks!

  • Roald André Pedersen

    What is Nuke? :S Is it like AE? Where can I get it?

  • bjcuba

    Hi Phill, i´m just begining with nuke and i think who its to hard without basic tutorials.
    I use AE all the time, but the first problem who i found is the work flow with 3d programs.
    If you know about some page who have some videotutorials of NUKE, please write to me.
    My mail is bjcuba@gmail.com.

    I´m waitng for the help.
    thank you

    PD: Sorry for my English

  • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
    Author

    hi there! a great deal of beginner’s tutorial (and i mean A LOT) can be found at The Foundry’s website: http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/pkg_examples.aspx?ui=CBC2593A-2C9F-4EF9-84BE-C198B0171453

    • bjcuba

      Thanks man, great help.
      I´m downloading now all tutst.
      But you know about some web like videocopilot.net, but for nuke.
      I mean who have defined proyects (like “how to make a monster”) hehe.
      Sorry for the problems.

      • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
        Author

        I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that, but I guess a quick Google search might help. I am sure some Nuke-cracks have already put up some tutorials. And if not… well, I guess I have to look into it then ;)

      • bjcuba

        Thanks Phil
        I have the last dude,
        I´ts necesary learn programing for work in Nuke.
        Or Have a grafic enviroment.
        thank you
        bjcuba

  • Steve Jorbs

    One reason NOT to switch to Nuke – No support from VideoCopilot.,net.

    Seriously, if it’s not good enough for Andrew and Sam, it’s not good enough for me.

  • What’s My name?

    Phil, you are a hottie!

    Love the hair and the eyes! Can’t believe you are not a model?! You need to be lol!

  • Wezhira

    Please do something about the premium content area. its not easy to access. i have to log in every time i see the video i want to watch, and when i log in i cannot get to the video.. so much for premium membership very frustrating

  • james

    I’ve just paid for premium content, can someone please explain to me how i go about watching this AE vs Nuke video, I can’t seem to navigate to actually watch it?! I keep going round in circles…where is it? A very simple ‘click here to watch’ would be great!

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller

      go to http://tutsplus.com/amember/login.php and login, then navigate to AEtuts on the side and then go under the “bonus tutorials” tab.

  • vj nazareth

    wow! you really inspired me! where can I see your latest reel Phil?

  • Dara

    people wonder why this hair and make-up?…BECAUSE HE UNIQUE.don’t have to a lemming ..create your own style. this guy is pimp!…rock on dude.

  • Steve

    Informative and enjoyable to watch = Excellent tutorial Phil. Thanks.

  • Joe

    I enjoyed this video! You’re really cool :)
    I’m also a huge fan of AE.